Many years ago I was in downtown Austin, walking along minding my own business. There was some self proclaimed prophet reading from a bible as loud as he could. I passed him an got to a crosswalk. Next thing I know, there’s a hand on my shoulder. It was the reverend and looking me square in the face and he asked me, “son, do you know Jesus?” I frowned, “No.” “Oh my” he groaned, “you really don’t know Jesus!?” “No I don’t, and any one that says they do is a liar, because Jesus has been dead for nearly 2,000 years.” I quipped “So, can’t you hear the Lord speak to your heart?” He pressed. “No, my heart doesn’t have ears, I don’t know anyone that hears through their heart.” the guy couldn’t catch a clue. “Well young man,” he said, “don’t you want to go to Heaven?” “No.” I returned. Looking shocked, the preacher asked “you mean you don’t want to go to Heaven when you die!? “ “Oh yeah when I die,” I answered, “I thought you were getting a group up to go now.” The light turned and I walked away leaving the reverend looking dumbfounded. **************************************************** Another time, my wife and I had been working one Saturday with the Habitat for Humanity all day. When done we went downtown since I needed to drop off some papers at a client’s office. We were pretty grungy looking. At one point I stopped and took my hat off to scratch my head, and some lady dropped a quarter in it! We had a good laugh.
During my grad school days (circa 1973?) at a party where much of the products based on hops, malt and hemp were being consumed, a discussion ensued about previous LSD consumption and expanded consciousness. One young man described an incident when he consumed LSD out in the country and subsequently took off all of his clothes and walked down the side of a road. He said a passing patrol car stopped and the officers roughed him up and took him off to jail. He said, "I learned something from that." Yes?, What? We were curious. In all earnestness he told us, "You can't walk down the highway naked."
